The Ekklesia Project
newheader

   February 2010  
IN THIS ISSUE....

Regional EP Gathering in Oregon

Gathering 2010

Meet the EP: Susan Adams.

Book Review: Just War and Christian Discipleship by Dan Bell, reviewed by Jake Wilson

"The Hope of All the World"

Maintaining our Community Beyond the Gathering



New on bLOGOS

golden calf

And Now, Please Rise....

Andy Alexis-Baker at Jesus Radicals calls our attention to a disappointing change in policy at Goshen College. Please consider Andy's suggested responses in the concluding update. Read more

Unrealistic Stories and Beginning...Again
by Brian Volck

The Transfiguration and Luke's beatitudes take on Niebuhrian realism (Obama's and others). With whom do we side, as we stand on the cusp of Lent?  Read more

On Becoming a Seraph
by Jake Wilson
Pushkin
"Where Isaiah fails (rightly) to describe God, the text devotes more than three times as much space to God's attendants, the Seraphs...The amount of space given to the description of the Seraphs should alert us to their importance for the preaching of this text."  Read more
Regional Gathering: WAITING FOR AND HASTENING THE COMING DAY

Our friends at Church of the Servant King in Portland, OR, are hosting a Regional EP Gathering and invite you to hear noted Bible scholar Douglas Harink on Feb. 19 & 20. Harink will speak on the meaning of the church through the lens of 1 & 2 Peter. He is associate professor of theology at The King's University in Edmonton, Alberta. He is the editor of Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision, and author of Paul Among the Postliberals and a Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible series.

For more information, contact
Mike Munk or go to the Ekklesia Project page on Facebook.
"'And God Said...': Language, Wordcare and Radical Discipleship"

Gathering 2010 will offer workshops that connect with our four emphases. Though personel and focus are still developing, we can report the following:
  • God-centered: Halden Doerge (and a partner) will engage god-talk in cyberspace, focusing on the dangers of thin theology and the possibilities for thick friendships

  • Church-centered: Ed Phillips and Randy Cooper will consider our worship words, especially as they foster and enable faithful congregational conversation.

  • Shalom-centered: John McFadden (and a partner) will take us past "just say no" to war to consider active practices of shalom.

  • Political: Mike Budde (and a partner) will focus on discourses that resist formation by nationalism and other false politics.
We will meet on the campus of DePaul University in Chicago July 6-8 (Tuesday to Thursday). We will have registration instructions in the March newsletter. Mary Bowling will serve as our registrar.
 Meet the EP: Susan AdamsSusan Adams

 Susan writes: 

 I am a member of Englewood Christian Church on the near East  
 Side of Indianapolis. I became a member in 1987 and have raised
 my three kids (all now in college) in the midst of this amazing
 community of believers. Originally I taught high school Spanish and
 English as a New Language in Indianapolis, but currently am
 directing and teaching in a U.S. Department of Education Title III grant, Project Alianza at Butler University. I am also a doctoral student at Indiana University where I am finishing my qualifying exams and preparing to write my prospectus. I am interested in teacher racial identity and its impact on teaching and learning and hope to be in the middle of my dissertation work next fall.
 
I became involved in EP (in 2005, I think?) because Mike Bowling, our pastor, was mentoring a congregation involved in the Congregational Formation Initiative. I was bugging Mike with so many questions that he finally suggested I come along to the EP Gathering just to shut me up. I was delighted to find theologians, pastors, and layfolk all thinking and talking together and with great energy and passion about the Kingdom of God. Our little group was humbled to find people were interested in our story and in our shared life at Englewood. We excitedly talked all the way home in the car, anxious to somehow communicate all we had learned and heard to the rest of the congregation. We have since brought more of our members along for the EP experience and eagerly look forward each summer to returning to renew friendships, meet new people, and engage deeply in conversation with brothers and sisters who have hearts for the Kingdom of God.
 
In our journey at Englewood, we have found great comfort and encouragement in knowing that there are other congregations and communities seeking to live out the reality of the coming Kingdom. We have been refreshed by strong teaching, stirring exhortation and glorious worship times. We reference ideas, texts and books written by our EP friends regularly. We have sought advice and counsel from brothers and sisters in other parts of the country and have been deeply touched by the kinship we experience among EP members. We are grateful to God for His abundant goodness and mercy and to each of you for sharing the road with us.

Just War as Christian Discipleship: Recentering the Tradition in the Church rather than the State   Daniel M. Bell Jr.  Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2009. 
Reviewed by Jake Wilson
 
Dan Bell's Just War as Christian Discipleship is a fine introduction to the Just War tradition,  written for the non-specialist who is interested in learning both the history
and current use of the tradition. (It greatly expands his excellent pamphlet on the same topic.) More thBell bookan simply recounting the various strands of Just War thinking, Bell offers a thorough re-thinking of the Just War tradition's most recent form.

Bell refers to the most common current form of the Just War tradition as Just War Public Policy Check list (PPC) in which the tradition is viewed primarily as a set of criteria for the use of political leaders in crafting public policy.  Bell critiques the PPC strand of the tradition by suggesting we consider Just War as a form of Christian discipleship (CD).  The aim here is to see Just War as a means of embodying the kinds of specifically Christian practices and commitments that lead to faithful discipleship during times of war and peace. 

Each chapter concludes with an exploration of the way the Just War tradition challenges the Church.  These sections help the reader to see how seemingly abstract discussions of criteria directly connect to the life of the Church.  For example, the criteria of legitimate authority challenges the Church to examine the kind of leaders it produces and supports. 

Throughout the book, Bell prompts the reader not just to learn the tradition, but also to live the tradition as a form of Christian discipleship.  He admits that it will be costly and difficult.  Indeed, it will be impossible without the grace of God.  However, for that very reason, Just War (CD) presents the Church with an opportunity to bear witness to the Lordship of Christ, even and especially in times of war. 

Hope"The Hope of All The World": The EP Responds
 
Our blog on President Obama's Nobel Prize speech and related issues of peace and war continues to draw contributions and responses. See new contributions from Rob Arner, Debra Dean Murphy, Danny Fong and Jeremiah Gibbs.
 
We invite you to join in this conversation by
contributing sermons, blogs, newsletter columns and other pieces you have already written in
the course of your teaching and preaching.  Or
comment on one of the posted reflections.

Maintaining our Community Beyond the Gathering

With the practices of friendship and hospitality being central to the mission and identity of the EP, we keep searching for ways in which this newsletter can help us to maintain our friendships with one another throughout the year.  Which is why I was delighted when fellow EPer Jake Wilson offered to review a new book by our good friend Dan Bell.  If you have read a recent publication by an EP author (or written one yourself), please drop me a line--the more "EP-centric we can make this newsletter, the better we will come to know and appreciate one another!

John McFadden, editor.